Colin Farrell was born in Dublin, Ireland and brought up in Dublin and one of its suburbs, Castleknock.
Being that Farrell is Irish, it comes as no surprise that he was raised Catholic.[1] He received his education at a Catholic institution, St. Brigid's National School–again, nothing extraordinary for an Irishman.
Digging into Farrell's religious history, one gets the feeling that he's not that devout. In fact, one could speculate that living like a rock star is (or at least was) Farrell's real religion. He says:
I ended up on a shrink's couch, and he told me to write down how much I did in a week: 20 E's, 4 grams of coke, six of speed, half an ounce of hash, three bottles of Jack Daniel's, 12 bottles of red wine, 60 pints.[2]
But that doesn't necessarily mean Farrell's a bad Catholic. There is, of course, the fact that he is divorced,[3] which in the Catholic's universe is on the "no-no list" somewhere near wearing a condom. Furthermore, Farrell briefly considered converting to Judaism when he was dating Jewish author Emma Forrest.[4]
However, after Farrell and Forrest broke up and the next year, Farrell was baptizing his new son in the Catholic church.[5]
Family Politics
Farrell doesn't get into the political process of his adopted country of the U.S. and, for that matter, he doesn't get into the politics of his homeland either–unless it is related to his family.
Farrell's brother, James, is a gay man. As a result, Farrell has been active in promoting tolerance toward homosexuals. He got involved with Stand Up!, an organization dedicated to ending homophobic bullying.[6] In a much-publicized speech on the issue, Farrell said:
If there is nothing to fear, there is nothing to hate. If there is nothing to hate, there is no pain.[7]
Later, Farrell was the best man at his brother's wedding.[8]
Back in Ireland, Farrell supported an Irish couple's special-needs son in lobbying Irish educators to include him in the normal education process. Farrell has a special-needs child as well.[9]
One gets the sense that Farrell commits himself to political/social projects that he thinks he can really affect–issues with which he has a personal connection. The rest of it, perhaps wisely, Farrell views as out of his hands. He once said:
There's madness in the world around me, sure. There's nothing I can do about that. I just work as hard as I can work and play as hard as I can play.[10]
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